Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I wonder about how well they could all play the music. His Recessional was one of the pieces composed for such a performance, and it is so difficult, I can’t imagine more than a handful of people mastering it.
I recommend reading the History of Orchestration by Adam Carse to find more about how the harp was introduced to orchestras. It was primarily used in opera orchestras, but as a continuo instrument, it may well have been used in Esterhazy and other such places where they had skilled harpists. Berlioz was very much inspired by Gluck, who used the harp in his opera Orfeo. And, of course, Monteverdi used it in his Orfeo. As did Stravinsky.
What is interesting to note is that three harps playing three separate parts are no louder than one harp, where three harps playing one part are at least a little louder, hopefully. It is a more full and rich sound, though. Gounod’s Faust uses six harps as I recall.
I’d like to know the other 15 pieces, just composers and titles, if you have time, Mr. Nieweg.
Hindemith has a wonderful piece for piano, 2 harps and brass, that would benefit from doubling the parts.
Coils are definitely better than the plastic, but a well made book will lie flat, too. I don’t remember what it is, but there is some problem with coils. A lot of printers don’t do them, and they cost more as well, I think.
You probably brought it up to pitch too quickly. Do not use fishing line. Use harp strings, the kind the harp is supposed to have.
Yes, the last part of the Variations is the best, and Lucile Lawrence insisted that her students learn the whole thing, which I performed twice at recent Harp Festivals of Philadelphia.
Do you know where Marjo Breusing is these days?
I believe that they are not playing the Sparnon arrangement, but one done for the group, I think by Virginia Woerner Hatter.
I’m only interested in publishing a quality book. I will be setting up all the contents myself, but I want a real page size and binding, if possible. At the very least, my local printer can do it on 18 X 12 sheets with saddle stitching. Doing it cheapo at Kinko is nogo. I won’t buy music with ring binding or any of that crap. It tears the other music and doesn’t last. You can’t beat the old ways. Another local printer will do 19 x 14 or something. The problem is finding someone to sew the binding.
I am preparing a collection for publication, and printing, if I do more than 20 copies, will be around $200 plus set-up charges, so more like $250, and then I have to find a way to promote them so people know they exist, and have them actually part with $25-30 to hopefully cover my printing and other expenses. And harpists do not buy music they way that they should. My three publications were all submitted to the Journal for new publications and have never been listed. It’s a dismal picture. So, buy music, even if you don’t necessarily need it. It’s the only way to keep the ball rolling. Years ago, Don Henry would tell me the only way he could keep publishing music was by selling accessories. There are thousands of harpists in this country, and if each one bought 20 different pieces of music a year, that would be a sizeable market. What is really sad is that you have to pay through the nose to make a cd, to do a debut recital, to publish music, and it shouldn’t be that way, but in this country, it has been that way since the 1910s. And there are far too many people waiting to take your money to “help” you get ahead.
Those of you who are well off should seriously consider sponsoring another harpist who is not, to equalize opportunities for all. How many harpists can come from a poor background and have a chance at a career?
I think that is asking for trouble. The management can say if a blue harp is inappropriate, if you have another option.
I think you are on the right track. If you linger on the appoggiaturas, they may start to sound right. They are very expressive. The German edition calls these Sonatines. Are they called Sonates in the French edition? You are about right on the dates of ornamentation. Mostly, it is a question of style and function. Is it a grace note or an appoggiatura? Well, it depends on what is happening harmonically. If it makes no difference at all, it may be a grace note. They seem to be most common in triple-metre rondos. In a slow movement, they are almost certainly on the beat, taking their rhythmic value from the following note. You may not have heard them played that way before, but it should be right. I have a three-movement sonata by Naderman that clearly indicates the classical style of ornamentation, on the beat. In that third movement, I would play them on the beat and accent the dissonant upper note and give it a tenuto and diminuendo as it resolves on the third note.
One thought is, if he wrote chords with a sixth on the bottom for the left hand, like c-a-c-f, you can leave out the higher c, the doubled bass note so you can easily play it 124. He did that a lot in the Sea Symphony.
Yes, I have pondered that myself, for building strength, and there are surprisingly few solos that are basically all chords. The Bach-Grandjany etudes offer a few, two adagios and a bourree. There is the original Bach-Salzedo Bourree and Salzedo’s Londonderry Air, some of his Christmas pieces and to extremes, the Prelude Fatidique, Bolero and Recessional. Dewey Owens’s Bach Chaconne is fairly chordal. Gaubert’s Sarabande also, but those are concert solos. It’s a short list. The Pavane in Solos for the Harp Player is of course, there as well as some Corelli pieces.
Yes, I have pondered that myself, for building strength, and there are surprisingly few solos that are basically all chords. The Bach-Grandjany etudes offer a few, two adagios and a bourree. There is the original Bach-Salzedo Bourree and Salzedo’s Londonderry Air, some of his Christmas pieces and to extremes, the Prelude Fatidique, Bolero and Recessional. Dewey Owens’s Bach Chaconne is fairly chordal. Gaubert’s Sarabande also, but those are concert solos. It’s a short list. The Pavane in Solos for the Harp Player is of course, there as well as some Corelli pieces.
